Creative Storytelling: Telling Stories Your Customers Will Love - Simon Salt

Creative StorytellingTelling Stories Your Customers Will Love

Simon Salt - @incslinger

My StoryFirst

Website1993First

Podcast 1997

First Blog2001Fortune 500’s

Content House

2002First Book Published2011

Third Book Published 2014

What Are Stories?

Who Are Storytellers?

You’ve been a story teller since you were a child

What stories did you tell yourself?

Where were they set?

Who did you share the stories with?

Who were you in your stories?

How did your stories end?

Your Storytellers

Family

Teachers

Friends

Librarians

Ministers/Pastors

Television/Cinema

Types of Story

History - Creation

Safety – Hansel & Gretel

Conformity – Alice in Wonderland

Identity – Paul Revere

Instruction – Three Little Pigs

Elements of a Story

The Arc

The Characters

The method of transport

The goal

The Pace

The Length

The ending

Medium

Point of View

Whose story is it?

Who is telling it?

Is there a narrator?

Who is the audience?

How familiar are the audience with the characters

the location

Emotional Triggers

Humor

Joy

Sadness

Anger

Fear

Love

Responses

Attachment

Action

Memory

Retelling

Enacting

Expanding

Customers As Audience

Less Sell More Tell

How do you fit into their world?

What do you do for them?

What does their world look like without you?

How is life different with you in their world?

People Not Brands

Storytelling is a human activity

Businesses don’t tell stories

Stories build connections

Storytelling is not selling

Stories In Marketing

Stories ARE Content Marketing

Stories ARE long-tail

Stories ARE hard to do right

Stories ARE increasingly important

Stories ARE NOT selling

Stories ARE NOT PR

Stories ARE NOT about you

Planning A Story

Why are you telling it?

How will it be delivered?

Who will create it?

Topic

Follow-up

Shelf-Life

Exclude time-based elementsUnless it’s seasonal

Stand-alone or episodic?

Simplex or Duplex?

Multiple channels

Story elements in other collateral

Abstract Partnerships

Using others stories

Collaboration

LEGO – bricks to Star Wars

Memories – past stories

Choose An Ending

Audience participation

Customer contribution

Customer guided

Customer character adoption

Character as Hero

Video

Stories & Social Media

Essential element of Social

All channels can be used

Lends itself to all forms of storytelling

Metrics

Allows for testing

Reviews

Everyone is a critic

Don’t respond

Reviews mean audience

Accept criticism

Death of a story

Plagiarism

Ridicule

Advertorial

“Sponsored” stories

Poor writing

A Happy Ending

Tell stories you love

Tell them often

Commit to the dialog

Accept criticism and learn to grow

A good story is art

Enjoy the experience

Simon Salt

[email protected]

@incslinger